


Benny's New Rosary

by TheMoo



Category: Bull (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 13:09:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17581457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMoo/pseuds/TheMoo
Summary: Follow up to the end of Death Sentence, from Benny's POV.





	Benny's New Rosary

Benny watched as Bull made a dash out of the courtroom. Rising halfway out of his chair to follow him, Benny’s eyes lit upon Elliott and the interpreter, both in their places – in the witness box and standing beside it, respectively - and grinning. Then both looked over to the defense table, presumably for some hint as to what to do next.

With a sigh, Benny got all the way out of his chair and walked towards them. Jurors and spectators were filing out of the courtroom by now. Elliott was looking a little lost and Benny felt the same. I should go check on Bull, he was thinking, as he walked. I shouldn’t have let him just bolt out alone like that. He looks terrible.

And it wasn’t like Bull to just scoot out and leave the client without an exit strategy. Normal procedure (and Bull would never stint): hug Elliott, talk to him until he was calm, arrange with the court clerk to get his things from the jail, arrange transportation home for Elliott and the interpreter if she needed it, make sure Elliott had groceries at home. It was unlikely his so-called girlfriend would be there. Bull would not neglect to take care of all these little mundane things once the high drama was done.

So, wasn’t it Benny’s duty to take care of all that in Bull’s absence? Perhaps. But if Bull were not in real trouble, would he have failed to do these things himself? So, where should Benny be in the case of real trouble but with his friend?

Once he had traversed the few short feet to the witness stand, he had made his decision. “Stay there!” he ordered them,“Wait for me! I just have to do something!”  
There, that would hold them. Let them think I have to run to the bathroom. Whatever. Benny was out the courtroom’s wide doors barely a breath after the words left his mouth.  
Once outside and on the courthouse steps, Benny saw nothing of Bull. He noted that at the bottom of the stairs an ambulance was loading someone. Not that rare an occurrence. However . . .

“Hey, man, you missed some excitement.” 

Beside Benny there appeared a homeless man that he and Bull often saw on the courthouse steps. As often as not one of them would pass the man a bill and, if time permitted, exchange a few words. Benny smelled the tobacco, urine and cheap wine before he even turned to look at the man. Probably in his sixties, although it was hard to tell how much of his weary aspect was from chronological years and how much from the harshness of street life. He had once mentioned his name was Chris. They knew nothing else about him.

“Some guy collapsed right over there on the steps. Looked like a heart attack. Happens out here more often than you would think,” Chris told Benny. Benny dug into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out the first bill his hand touched. He passed it to Chris without looking at it.

“Describe the guy.”

“White. Tallish. A suit, like most of them that pass by here. Looked something like the dude you hang around with, come to think of it.”  
Without another word to or look at Chris, Benny raced down the courthouse steps. The paramedics were just lifting the patient into the back of the ambulance.

“Let me see him! I think I know him!” Benny shouted. Two paramedics turned around to look at him.

“No can do, pal,” one of the paramedics said. “We’re off to New Amsterdam Emergency. You can meet us there.”

Without his consciously thinking about it, Benny practical side cut in. “New Amsterdam? A public hospital? He’s got insurance.”

“That’s as may be, but what he ain’t got is time. The ‘Dam’s the closest cardiac emergency.” The paramedic softened his tone just a little. “They’ll take good care of him. Don’t you worry. Meet us there if you think you know this guy.” With this, he climbed into the back of the ambulance. Another paramedic slammed them inside, ran around to the front seat, climbed in.  
Benny stood watching the ambulance speed off. If that’s Bull, I guess he’s in good hands. I’ll take care of business here, he decided. He headed back up the stone steps towards the building.

“I didn’t get a chance to see him,” he said sideways to Chris as he passed him on the steps. 

“I’ll say a prayer,” Chris called after him.

So will I, thought Benny. Lots of them.

**********************

Benny returned to the courtroom to find Elliott and the interpreter conferring with one of the court clerks. Elliott pointed to Benny as Benny came in, apparently to say, ‘See, here he is now’. 

Benny was terse: “I just missed Bull. They were loading him into an ambulance. Probably a heart attack but I don’t know yet.” He turned to the interpreter. “They say Elliott’s free to go, but he will need to stay around for some processing. And to get his stuff from the jail cell. Could you, maybe, hang around?”

“Sure. You get going!” the interpreter said. Elliott said the same thing with a wave of his hand towards the courtroom door. Benny needed no more encouragement. 

“Let us know how Dr. Bull is. Your office has my number,” the interpreter called after him.

**********************

Benny called the office from a taxi. Melissa picked up.

“Benny. We got cut off. We’re waiting to hear what happened.”

“Elliott got off. I’ll tell you about it later,” Benny said, “but, I’ve got news about Bull. I’m chasing an ambulance right now, believe it or not. Call New Amsterdam Cardiac Emergency. I didn’t see it but I’m pretty sure  
Bull is there by now. Call me back.”

“On it,” said Melissa, and, mercifully, hung up without asking anything more.

**********************

Benny wasn’t sure how many minutes passed until Marissa called him back. He wasn’t looking at his watch. Mostly his eyes were glazed over as he prayed in the back of the cab. Had he been aware of the traffic he would have found the drive agonizingly slow, but he wasn’t aware. He saw only Bull’s face, white as he remembered it in the courtroom. He had no rosary on him, but he mumbled Our Fathers, Hail Mary’s and Glory to the Father’s without trying to keep track. From time to time he promised the Mother of God that if she only spared Bull, he would never be without a rosary on his person again.

When Marissa did call back, there was nothing definite. Yes, it had been Bull in the ambulance. Yes, he had been in cardiac arrest. No, there was no news yet as to his condition.  
Benny declined her offer to send one of the gang to sit with him in Emergency. If the worst happened, he wouldn’t have to stay long. If Bull pulled through, he might be there a long time. No, it was too soon to update either Elliott or Izzy. Benny promised to keep everyone informed.

************************

From time to time, Benny accosted someone as they came out from behind doors that through which he was forbidden to pass. Sometimes a lab coated figure, sometimes a person in scrubs, told him the same things as they rushed by him. If there were news, someone would come and tell him. Finally, a large black woman in a nurse’s uniform actually stopped to talk to Benny. She towered over him in height and was easily double his weight. She took Benny’s hands in her own two pudgy ones and drew him towards a bank of plastic benches.

“Lookit, sweetie,” she told him. “No news is good news, okay? We’re busy in there and if, God forbid, we lose your friend, you’ll be told and fast. The longer it takes, the better it is. I promise.”

Benny met her eyes and thanked her for her kindness. She gave him a quick smile and hurried off.

Her reference to God gave him an idea. Must be a gift shop in this place somewhere where he could pick up a rosary.

Asking his way of various volunteers he found a gift shop, but it had closed at 4:00 p.m. Not to be deterred, he consulted various maps on the wall, tiring of talking to solicitous volunteers, and made his way through the huge complex to find a chapel. New Amsterdam was like a small city. How did anybody who worked here remember how to find their own office, he wondered idly.

The chapel was in use. In fact, groups of families stood outside it, apparently waiting their turns. The chapel was of the nondenominational variety. Stained glass windows separated it from the main corridor but the designs were non-specific. Circles, squares and squiggles. Boring. If I were God, I wouldn’t bother with it, Benny thought, then chided himself inwardly for such an irreverent thought. Just stress. Humour to relieve tension. 

Among the people milling about outside the chapel, Benny picked out a clerical collar. Catholic? One way to find out. He inched towards the family and priest who were huddled together, waiting deferentially until the priest noticed him.

Benny saw nothing about the man except his collar. It was all he cared about.

“Yes, my son?”

“Catholic?” Benny asked, briefly.

“That’s right,” the priest replied. “So, you’re not with these people?” He gestured to the people around him, of various ages whose expressions, Benny now noticed, were haggard and many of their eyes were red-rimmed from crying.

“I need a rosary but the gift shop is closed. It’s not like I can go home,” Benny explained. “Maybe somebody could lend . . .?”

A middle-aged woman among the group dug into her purse and produced a set of beads. She extended them to Benny. “Take these. Don’t bring them back. They didn’t do my husband any good.” Benny took them, murmured thanks and turned away, just catching from the corner of his eye that the priest took the woman by the shoulders and started saying something to her.

**********************

When he returned to the now-familiar waiting area he saw Chunk waiting for him. Benny gratefully received clean clothes (sweats, socks, running shoes and fresh underwear) together with a selection of fruit drinks from the fridges of TAC and an array of sandwiches garnished with Marissa’s signature pickle slices. 

“Didn’t bring you another suit. Figured you may as well be comfortable,” said Chunk, although he himself was dapperly turned out as always. “One of the girls is going to relieve you in a bit, by the way. Cable and Danny are fighting over who gets to sit with me. Not Marissa. She’s holding down the fort.”

Benny pulled the top off a bottled drink and took a deep swallow. “No news,” he told Chunk.

“No news is good news, my friend,” Chunk smacked Benny on the shoulder and the two settled down on a plastic bench.

“Somebody told me that,” Benny said.

“Somebody’s right,” Chunk agreed. Then he looked quizzically at Benny. “You feel like talking?”

Benny shook his head and pulled his newly acquired rosary from his pocket. He dangled it, in answer, in front of Chunk.

“Go for it, man,” Chunk said. He took a sandwich of his own and said nothing more.

Benny mused that whoever else showed up, he would not leave until there was news one way or the other. 

**************************  
News fairly soon after, in fact, just after Danny had joined them on the plastic bench. Benny never remembered afterwards what the bearer of news looked like, their gender or job. Only the news. Bull would live. He was scheduled for surgery once he was stable enough but the outlook was hopeful.

What Benny did remember – and this for the rest of his life - was what he was wearing at that moment: sweats with no pockets. The rosary he had acquired from the grieving woman had therefore been transferred to the plastic bag that now held the suit he had worn in court. He’d been talking with Chunk, just before Danny came, and had consigned the rosary to the bag.

Once the news about Bull settled in, he remembered his vow. I’m going to make sure to be wearing this rosary, and a pocket to keep it in, from now on.

END


End file.
